Page 25 - March 16, 2017 Chinese Art, The Harris Collection, Christies

813
A BRONZE BOW-SHAPED FITTING WITH JINGLES
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
The ftting has a faceted, sharply arched arm at each end that terminates in a globular
jingle pierced with four slits that encloses a loose ball, and the bowed top is well cast
with two stylized cicadas fanking a central nippled boss.
14 in. (35.6 cm.) long, wood stand
$3,000-5,000

PROVENANCE

Fred C. Snider, St. Petersburg, Florida; Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 20 March
1976, lot 24.
The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida.
The exact use of fttings of this type is not known, although it is thought that they
might have been harness fttings or attached to bows. A ftting of this type is
illustrated by Cheng Dong and Zhong Shao-yi, Zhongguo Gudai Binqi Tuji (Ancient
Chinese Weapons – A Collection of Pictures), Beijing, 1990, p. 33, pl. 2-67, and in a
line drawing on p. 34, pl. 2-69, a ftting of this type is shown attached to the front of
a bow. In an article by Tang Lan, Kaogu, 1973:3, p. 178, it is conjectured that these
fttings were either for decoration or to prevent the bow from being stolen.
Compare the ftting cast with very similar cicadas in the British Museum, illustrated
by W. Watson, Handbook of the Collection of Early Chinese Antiquities, 1963, pl. 35a,
and another with cicadas fanking a central boss illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts
in the Idemitsu Collection, 1989, no. 90. See, also, the example from the tomb of Lady
Fu Hao illustrated in Yinxu Fu hao mu (Tomb of lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang), Beijing,
1980, Pl. LXXV 6 (no. 1122).

商晚期 青銅蟬紋弓形器

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